Oregon State
Long Beach St
Women's Basketball Falls to Long Beach State
December 05, 1999 | Women's Basketball
Dec. 5, 1999
LONG BEACH, Calif. - Long Beach State broke away from a 33-33 tie early in the second half as the 49ers handed the Oregon State women's basketball team a 66-56 loss at the Pyramid on Sunday afternoon.
Rhonda Smith scored 18 of her game-high 24 points in the second half to lead the 49ers (3-2) to the win. OSU (2-3) was led by Cherrith Wiersma, who had a career-high 17 points, highlighted by five 3-point baskets.
The Beavers led 38-33 with about 11 minutes left in the game, but the 49ers went on a 25-6 run over the next 6:30 to jump ahead, 58-44. Smith scored 12 points during that span, and OSU's only points came off two of Wiersma's 3-pointers.
"Cherrith played a great game, and we needed to get the ball to her," said coach Judy Spoelstra. "I thought she might be able to get us back in it. We played a hard-fought game, but we just had about a three-minute defensive lapse out there."
The game was tied, 24-24, at halftime with the Beavers scoring a quick three points at the end of the half to tie things up. The 49ers led 24-21 with 21 seconds left in the half, and OSU's Felicia Ragland was fouled on a 3-point shot to give the Beavers a chance to tie things up. Ragland made the first free throw before missing the next two, but Reda Petraitis grabbed the offensive rebound and Kristina Rukstelyte made her only field goal of the game to tie the game at the break.
OSU shot just 28.6 percent from the field, hitting only 12 of its 37 attempts. Long Beach was an impressive 63.6 percent (19-27) on the afternoon. The Beavers did have the rebounding edge, 40-36, and Petraitis registered a game-high nine boards to lead OSU.
Long Beach had 19 assists and 10 blocks, including nine from Smith. The Beavers had 10 assists to go along with just two blocks. OSU did force 22 Long Beach turnovers, while the Beavers committed just 16 turnovers.
"It's early in the season, and we need to learn from this," Spoelstra said. "We need to learn where our scoring is going to come from on a consistent basis."
